Ken Houston paints over graffiti on an East Oakland mail box as he cleans an area near International Boulevard and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif.

Ken Houston paints over graffiti on an East Oakland mail box as he cleans an area near International Boulevard and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif.

Photo: The Chronicle

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John Hopkins, left, Lonnie McClendon and Ramon Rios pick up trash and weeds near International Boulevard in East Oakland to help out Ken Houston as he cleans up and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif. less

John Hopkins, left, Lonnie McClendon and Ramon Rios pick up trash and weeds near International Boulevard in East Oakland to help out Ken Houston as he cleans up and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on ... more

Photo: The Chronicle

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Ken Houston, right, embraces a man, who told Houston his name is OG Loveone, after he gave the man coffee and doughnuts as Houston cleans up and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif. less

Ken Houston, right, embraces a man, who told Houston his name is OG Loveone, after he gave the man coffee and doughnuts as Houston cleans up and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 ... more

Photo: The Chronicle

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John Hopkins, left, and Ramon Rios pick up trash and weeds near International Boulevard in East Oakland to help out friend Ken Houston as he cleans up and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif. less

John Hopkins, left, and Ramon Rios pick up trash and weeds near International Boulevard in East Oakland to help out friend Ken Houston as he cleans up and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, ... more

Photo: The Chronicle

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Randall Matthews with the Oakland Public Works Department paints over some graffiti on an electrical box in East Oakland to help out friend Ken Houston clean up an area of International Boulevard as he announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif. less

Randall Matthews with the Oakland Public Works Department paints over some graffiti on an electrical box in East Oakland to help out friend Ken Houston clean up an area of International Boulevard as he ... more

Photo: The Chronicle

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Randall Matthews with the Oakland Public Works Department paints over graffiti on an East Oakland building to help out friend Ken Houston as he cleans up and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif. less

Randall Matthews with the Oakland Public Works Department paints over graffiti on an East Oakland building to help out friend Ken Houston as he cleans up and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, ... more

Photo: The Chronicle

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Ken Houston paints over graffiti on an East Oakland mail box as he cleans an area near International Boulevard and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif.

Ken Houston paints over graffiti on an East Oakland mail box as he cleans an area near International Boulevard and announces his run for mayor of Oakland on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Oakland, Calif.

Photo: The Chronicle

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Oakland's Rebecca Kaplan leaves a political - and stinky - mess

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Oakland Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Rebecca Kaplan used a pile of trash in East Oakland as an illustration of everything that is wrong with Oakland when she announced her run for mayor — and then didn’t do the hard work of cleaning up the garbage, a prominent East Oakland critic says.

Kaplan picked an intersection of International Boulevard and 92nd Avenue where a dead dog was left for a week to highlight, she said, Mayor Jean Quan’s failure to keep the city clean and safe. The dead dog was long gone when Kaplan announced, but Kaplan did announce her candidacy surrounded by piles of trash.

Kaplan didn’t raise a finger to pick up the trash herself, said Ken Houston, a well-connected city contractor who said the incident made him angry enough to run for mayor himself.

“I’m thinking I’m going to support (Kaplan). Then she packs up and she leaves,” Houston said. “She used this as a stage and a platform and a prop, so when you leave you clean up your prop.”

Houston has little hope of competing in the top field of candidates running for mayor (he pledged to run his campaign on $1), but he is well-spoken and fiery — his presence at mayoral debates could unsettle well-established candidates and provide him plenty of publicity. When he files his official paperwork Houston will be the 20th candidate competing in the November election.

“They always come out here every four years when it is election season and give these promises and it never changes and they come back again in four years,” Houston said of elected officials who use the blight in East Oakland as a political tool and then do nothing about the issue.

As Houston spoke a handful of volunteers with the Beautification Council cleaned up weeds, picked up trash and painted over graffiti at the corner where Kaplan made he announcement.

“Yes and no — dude I am a bad boy,” Houston said when asked if was ready for high office. “Dude, I like to drink tequila, I drank it last night, I like motorcycles. I like women.”

But Houston said he was tired of the political theater at City Hall.

“It is not that I don’t like Rebecca,” Houston said of Kaplan. “It is just an insult for her to come here where I live and walk away from this. She doesn’t live here.”

Jason Overman, a spokesman for Kaplan, said the councilwoman reported the trash to the city immediately after her press conference. It is not citizens’ job, Overman said, to do the city’s work.

“Keeping our neighborhoods clean is obviously something that community members help out with a lot with,” Overman said. “It is always appreciated, but it shouldn’t have to come to that. Our priority is making sure the Public Works Agency is fully staffed when it comes to illegal dumping. … It is not their job and it is shame that people feel like in order to have clean neighborhoods that they have to do it themselves.”